Three weeks later, the headaches were getting worse and a GP's theory that she had whiplash and "stress" from the falls seemed increasingly unlikely. "At that point we

went back to the doctor and finally persuaded them this might be something more serious," says Rhona. "She was put in for a CT scan and suddenly everything spiralled."

The scan revealed a major bleed on the brain that doctors believed had been caused by something akin to shaken- baby syndrome from all her falls. Within days she was

being operated on and having two holes the size of 10p pieces drilled into her skull to drain off the fluid. Despite the seriousness of the operation, Gwen seemed to be

recovering well, but this turned out to be only the beginning of her worries.

The headaches had not gone and fluid was seeping from the original cyst and building up on the edge of her brain. It needed an urgent and highly risky operation to

redirect it. When the operation was over, Gwen awoke from the anaesthetic only for a moment before falling unconscious.

Her parents were told to expect the worst. "The neurosurgeon said, 'I want you to come in here, to the special family room,' and we thought, 'Oh no, not the special

family room, when they take you there and make you tea,'" recalls Rhona. "Once you're in there you know they're going to tell you something nasty. It was as bad as we

thought. He said, 'I don't know if it's been successful, I don't know if she's going to wake up and I don't know if she's brain-damaged.'"

With contagious enthusiasm, Gwen sustains conversation for unfeasible periods. Perched on the sofa in hot pants, a vest and Ugg boots, she talks so quickly that her

words fall into each other in a constant stream. After one monologue in extreme fast-forward, her mum interjects: "Are you going to pause for breath?" She doesn't.

Yes, awarded by the South African Podiatry Association. They awarded this approval for these styles being wider, lighter and more flexible, so encouraging strong foot development. At first, when we introduced Toughees to the UK, children didn’t necessarily find Toughees as comfortable as our competitors; our competitors have very soft padding and leathers because that’s what the European market is used to. Toughees live up to their name, so they’re stronger. We now produce shoes with a padded collar around the heel whereas before that didn’t happen because that’s how South Africans like to wear them – hard and strong, whereas British parents didn’t want their children to get any blisters! The British have very soft feet; they’re not used to walking barefoot everywhere. So we had to adjust; and now South Africa has made Toughees for us with a softer collar but the same strong, longer lasting leather. Toughees Fashion is a school shoe but it’s a more fashionable school shoe. We also do a sports shoe – a black or white trainer in velcro or in lace-ups – very simple but it’s real leather, which is quite unusual for trainers because normally they’re synthetic. We’ve also got them to design wellies for us and they come in two colours – bright red and bright yellow – which are the Toughees colours. They’ve got a fleece lining, like an Ugg boot wellie. I know from my children that their feet freeze in winter, so this was a nice compromise and we’ve been selling well on those. Two years ago, just after she had taken home both the British junior and the British women's surfing titles in one season, Gwen suffered a brain injury that she was lucky to escape from alive. There is still a chance that some of the damage has been lasting. "I tease her about forgetting chores but we are worried," says Rhona, "She does seem to forget things all the time now. She's going to have some tests later in the year." '